Most Expensive Presidential Trip Ever

President Obama's $200 million a day trip,

The rightwingnuttia is abuzz with the news that President Obama's trip overseas will cost the American taxpayers $200 million a day, that 34 U.S. warships will be stationed for his protection, and that his entourage of 2,000 will use 870 rooms at a five-star hotel.

Except it's not true.

So, how did this truly ridiculous lie become a story? It's easy:

The numbers evidently originate with the Press Trust of India, whose report [based on one anonymous source] was linked on the Drudge Report and picked up by Fox News host Glenn Beck.

From there it exploded in what Rachel Maddow calls the "alternate, self-contained, right-wing media universe," where it has become "de facto fact."

And naturally, the traditional (sometimes called "liberal") media feels compelled to report that there is a story out there, never mind that it's a load of garbage ... because after all, it is the fair and balanced thing to do.

(source:dailykos.com)

Obama Begins Asian Economic

U.S. President Barack Obama left Friday for a 10-day trip to Asia, on a mission to increase economic ties with the region's emerging economies.

Mr. Obama's first stop will be India, where he will spend four days visiting the financial center, Mumbai and the capital, New Delhi, accompanied by several U.S. business leaders.  The president told reporters at the White House Thursday the region is one of "the fastest growing markets in the world," and his goal is to open up those markets to sell U.S. goods and create jobs.

His stay in India will be the longest time he has spent in a foreign country since taking office.

After India, Mr. Obama will visit Indonesia, where he lived during part of his childhood, then travel to Seoul for the summit of leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies.

The president is expected to raise the issue of China's tight control of its currency, which many lawmakers and business leaders say makes Chinese goods cheaper to sell on the world markets.  Mr. Obama is also hoping to announce progress on the long-stalled U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement.

After Seoul, he will visit Japan before returning home.

Mr. Obama is undertaking his Asian trip days after his Democratic Party was trounced in mid-term congressional elections, losing control of the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate.

(source:voanews.com)

Attacks on President Obama Going to Asia: A Long Trip from Reality

Anonymous foreign official claimed that the President’s trip to Asia would end up costing American taxpayers $200 million per day and that 34 navy warships were being used for the trip – certainly an astounding figure, were it true. Buts it’s not even close to true. This hasn’t stopped some political opponents of the President including some elected officials from trafficking in this claim.

So let us be unequivocal: the numbers reported have no basis in reality. Due to security concerns, we can’t get into details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated and President Obama’s costs are in line with the costs of protecting previous Presidents.

For the record, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was also asked about the claim that the President will be accompanied by 34 warships on the trip, and gave an appropriate response:

We obviously have some support role for presidential travel. We don't speak to that in detail for security reasons. But I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy -- some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier -- in support of the president's trip to Asia. That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done.

(source:whitehouse.gov)

Say no to American dairy products: CPI-M

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) Ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday said India should not accept the US demand for allowing import of its dairy and agricultural products.

'There is a threat that this will further weaken our agricultural sector,' said CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

'If India becomes a big market for the US to get out of its own economic crisis, it will pose a threat to our markets,' he said.

About the scheduled address of Obama to MPs, Yechury said: 'While we listen to Obama in parliament, he is also obliged to listen to the people of India.'

Obama will visit India Nov 6-9. He will arrive in Delhi Nov 7.

(source:sify.com)

Ahead of Obama's India visit, US slaps sanctions

Washington: On the eve of President Barack Obama's maiden visit to India, the US slapped sanctions on Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e Mohammad, besides targeting LeT commander Azam Cheema, a key operational figure in the 26/11 attacks.

The Treasury Department took action against Cheema, who helped train operatives for the 26/11 attacks and was the "mastermind" behind the July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, an official statement said.

Washington's action comes hours before Obama leaves on four-day visit to India, which has been pressing the US to lean on Pakistan to take strong and transparent action against the terror groups operating from its territory.

Obama's first halt will be Mumbai where he will stay at Taj hotel, the scene of audacious attacks by LeT terrorists in 2008. The attacks at Taj and other places in Mumbai had left 166 people dead and over 300 injured.

The department targeted financial and support network of the two terror groups. It also acted against Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, head of LeT's political affairs department, for acting for or on behalf of LeT.

The US also targeted Al Rehmat Trust, an operational front for JeM and the group's top leader Mohammed Masood Azhar Alvi.

"LeT and JeM have proven both their willingness and ability to execute attacks against innocent civilians," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.

"Today's action including the designation of Azam Cheema, one of LeT's leading commanders who was involved in the 2008 and 2006 Mumbai attacks is an important step in incapacitating the operational and financial networks of these deadly organizations," he said.

Cheema is a key commander in the operations of LeT which has been held responsible for the November 26, 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The group has been closely associated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

LeT was designated as a terrorist outfit in May 2005.

Cheema has also been described as LeT's surveillance or intelligence chief and has been involved in LeT's training activities, specifically training LeT members in bomb making and skills needed to infiltrate India.

The terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks received some of their training from Cheema. He is also reported to have been involved in the July 2006 Mumbai train bombings perpetrated by LeT.

In July 2006, a series of coordinated bombings of trains in Mumbai killed nearly 200 people.

In 2008, Cheema was appointed as an operations advisor to LeT senior leader Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who was also previously designated by the UN Committee.

As of 2004, Cheema was identified as being responsible for LeT's external operational planning.

As of late 2008, Hafiz Makki was reported to be head of LeT's political affairs department and served as head of LET's foreign relations department.

Makki has also played a role in raising funds for LeT. In early 2007, he gave approximately USD 248,000 to a LeT training camp and approximately USD 165,000 to a LeT-affiliated madrassa, the Treasury department said.

It said after JeM was banned in Pakistan in 2002, it began using al Rehmat Trust as a front for its operations.

The Trust has provided support for militant activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including financial and logistical support to foreign fighters operating in both countries.

In early 2009, several prominent members of the Trust were recruiting students for terrorist activities in Afghanistan.

The Trust has also been involved in fundraising for JeM, including for militant training and indoctrination at its mosques and madrassas.

As of early 2009, the Trust had initiated a donation program in Pakistan to help support families of militants who had been arrested or killed. And in early 2007, it was raising funds on behalf of Khudam-ul Islam, an alias for JeM.

The Trust has also provided financial support and other services to the Taliban, including financial support to wounded Taliban fighters from Afghanistan.

Mohammed Masood Azhar Alvi founded JeM in 2000 and is the head of al Rehmat Trust. He is also a former leader of the terrorist group Harakat al Mujahadin, also known as Harakat ul-Ansar; most of these groups' members subsequently joined JeM under Azhar's leadership.

In 2008, JeM recruitment posters in Pakistan contained a call from Azhar for volunteers to join the fight in Afghanistan against Western forces.

(source:ndtv.com)

Obama: People Saw "Overreach" in My Actions

President Obama said at a press conference Wednesday that the results of yesterday's midterm elections - in which his party lost Control of the House as well as Senate seats and governorships - "underscores for me that I've got to do a better job."

"I won the election in 2008, one of the reasons, I think, that people were excited about the campaign was the prospect that we would change how business is done in Washington," he said. "And we were in such a hurry to get things done that we didn't change how things got done. And I think that frustrated people."

He also placed the blame for the outcome of the midterms on that "very tough decisions" made by his administration during his first two years in office on the stimulus package, the bank bailouts (which were first passed under President Bush) and the auto bailouts.

"I think people started looking at all this and it felt as if government was getting much more intrusive into people's lives than they were accustomed to," he said. "Now, the reason was, it was an emergency situation. But I think it's understandable that folks said to themselves, 'You know, maybe this is the agenda as opposed to a response to an emergency.'"

Continued the president: "And that's something that I think, you know, everybody in the White House understood was a danger. We thought it was necessary. But, you know, I'm sympathetic to folks who looked at it and said, 'This is looking like potential overreach.'"

(source:cbsnews.com)

India to collaborate on innovations in agriculture sector

WASHINGTON: India and the United States will collaborate in the areas of agricultural innovation, during President Barack Obama's visit to the country, which will increase food security for Indians and help bring green revolution in Africa, the White House has said.

" agriculture would be one of the main focus areas of the presidential trip to India. The trip would discuss how innovation can support the kind of agriculture that allows people to have a broader food base," Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication said in response to questions at "Tuesday Talks", a live web cast from the White House on the President's 10-day Asia trip.

"That's the kind of cooperation we are going to announce in the course of the trip," he said, adding that USAID administrator Raj Shah and Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack were going on the trip.

In Mumbai, they would have a roundtable with some of their counterparts and some Indian farmers to discuss ways in which technology and innovation can help to increase food security for Indians.

"That includes things like technologies... that allow you to predict the weather so you can gear your crops towards more efficient use of your efforts and predict the kinds of weather that will allow you to enhance your food security; the kinds of technologies that will help farmers get their products to the market," Rhodes said.

"So there's a whole host of innovations and technologies that we want to focus on in the area of agricultural cooperation."

President Obama , in addition to roundtable, may likely to visit an expo where some Indian farmers would be highlighting these technologies.

"One additional exciting component of this is the high level of cooperation between the US and India can support continued efforts in India to lift people out of poverty, but they can also help people around the world," he noted.

"US has been part of Food Security Initiative in Africa, where we are trying to apply technology, innovation, capacity building to help African farmers lift their countries and their peoples into a higher standard of living.

"We see great potential for the US and India to cooperate, not just within India but in African countries as well, to apply the extraordinary lessons learned within India and the extraordinary innovations made by Indians to support development in other parts of the world," he said.

"So it's an exciting collaboration, both in terms of extending the progress that's been made within India and also extending that progress into parts of Africa that, of course, are in bad need of development," Rhodes said.

(source:indiatimes.com)

Obama’s Post-election Trip: The One flees town for India

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

–John Adams, Founding Father, 2nd US President

Obama's trip an opportunity to highlight Kashmir issue: Syed Ali Shah Geelani

Hardline Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today said US President Barack Obama's visit to India provided it an opportunity to highlight the Kashmir issue.

The entire world attention would be focused on the visit and this would give the amalgam an opportunity to highlight the Kashmir issue, Geelani said in a statement here.

The Hurriyat hawk had given a call for a three-day shutdown in Kashmir Valley beginning November 6, coinciding with Obama's visit.